Now Where Was I...

Do I keep rattling on about myself, or go off on another tangent? Like how much I really, REALLY, REALLY hate my prescription coverage. Or my worries about my husband. Or my son, the honor student.

You know, I know I'm not supposed to worry about things I have no control over, but somtimes you just can't help it. My husband's big (in a good way), almost a foot taller than me, handsome, funny, smart, and has arthritis that covers pretty much his entire skeleton. We don't know how it happened.
The year 2000 wasn't great. Our try at having a motorcycle shop was nearing an end. I cracked up and lost my job in the International Department at a major car rental reservation center (mostly my fault). RW one day noticed his neck hurt, and we made an appointment for a local chiropractor for the next Monday. Sunday, he went riding at Stillwater with a (fair weather) friend, took a horrible spill (we should still have on video somewhere), up over the handlebars, down on his head or neck. Yes, I screamed. Did we rush to an emergency room? No, my hubby changed back into regular clothes, videotaped other riders the rest of the day. He even drove home, at first because there was a decrepit wood bridge that I was scared to drive over, then he said he couldn't get out of the seat (and I felt like a crumb). He was in pain, but, hey, he was going to the chiropractor the next day anyway. So we're at the chiropractor, she takes xrays, then puts him on the machine that zaps your back. When she came out with his xrays, she was literally white as a sheet. RW laughed and said, "Well, I know my neck's not broken!"
"No, but it is fused." Then she showed us. She had RW take xrays of the rest of his back at our local (deathcamp)hospital. She recommended he see our php (who I would have swore was the oldest doctor on the planet). Yet more xrays. We learn it's not just his neck that's fused, it's almost his entire spine. He recommends a rheumatologist. Back at the shop, I look up rheumatologist on Encarta, which, of course, leads me to the arthritis entry. When I find ankylosing spondylitis, I yell, "I found your back!"
Now, Mama had rheumatoid arthritis. Daddy had a little osteoarthritis. I even had a piano teacher at Oscar Rose Junior College with Lupus. But ankylosing spodylitis, or DISH (diffuse ideopathic skeletal hypertosis), we had never heard of them. What happens is bone grows and fuses the vertebrae together, usually from the tailbone up, RW's from the neck down (he can look left and right a little, but has no up or down). There is a gene associated with it (hla-b27), but RW doesn't have it. No real family history of arthritis. It was just sort of out of the blue.
The rheumatologist told him he was screwed and faced a world of pain. He recommended he try for Social Security disability. Everybody told us, "You be turned down, you'll have to have a lawyer." Well, everybody but the doctor.
Most inane question SSA asked, "Do you watch TV?"
RW's answer, "Hell yes! I'm in pain, I'm not dead!"
He was approved. In fact, the agent asked him how he could even move. We learned he would be reevaluated in seven years. To see if he's gotten better. "Get better?!" I said, "I was just hoping you'd to stay the same!"
That was four years ago, I wish he had stayed the same. It's now spread to his shoulders, knees, now hips, and has the heel spurs from hell.
He's in constant pain. Pain med-wise, he's taken vioxx (worthless, tore up his stomach), celebrex (ditto), advil liqui-gels (worked better, tore up his stomach), the duragesic patch (made him vomit, he says it didn't work that well).
That's the background of husband worries. And it all gets tied up in money worries and health insurance gripes. Last September, my work changed prescription coverage. It sucks. I can't use Walgreens, which I prefer, I have to use Eckerds. And if I don't set up recurring prescriptions as mail order, I have to pay a percentage, instead of a lower copay. I'm Ms. Not Together! I think of getting refills when I run out! I'm not together enough for mail order. What the hell is wrong just getting it at our local pharmacy? And God forbid it's not on their formulary! You have to pay full price! RW's has like 6 different prescriptions right now - oxycontin for pain, generic phenergan because oxy makes him vomit, lotrel for blood pressure, paxil cr for depression (not working), temazepam to help him sleep (not working well), and now a prescription laxative.
My health insurance almost doubled, it was $44.00 a pay period last year, this year, $83.00. Did the benefits double as well? They didn't even stay the same, prescriptions I've gone over, I have more copays this year. Who do I gripe to when nobody cares? They'll just spout off about containing costs.
Not Mine.